Since the start of the industrial revolution, the reciprocating piston engine and, the gas turbine engine have largely dominated the energy and transportation market. Despite many years of research and technological innovations and investments, these engines simple cycle thermal efficiencies are still below 50% and very far from the ideal Carnot cycle theoretical efficiency figure. As a result, these engines needs auxiliary energy recovery devices such as turbochargers, regenerative heat transfer systems or other topping or bottoming combined heat and power cycles to boost their powers and increase their thermal efficiencies. On the other side, for many years, patents on rotary vane combustion engines have claimed that rotary engines possess many advantages over reciprocating engines such as having higher power density, fewer parts, lower weight and fewer reciprocating imbalance. Indeed rotary engines aero thermodynamic configuration naturally bridges the mass flow and rotational speed gaps between reciprocating and gas turbine engines. But for rotary vane compressor and expander engine components to appear on the commercial market firstly seal and wear problems must be adequately addressed. The present invention addresses and eliminates the main problems related with friction, wear, seal, balance and aerodynamic drag that limit the use of single vane rotary compressor and expanders.
In today's industrial applications, rotary compressor and expander features single or multiple vanes that are slidably mounted in generally radial slots in the rotor. The rotor itself is eccentrically mounted in a chamber formed in the compressor or expander housing. The centrifugal force urges the vanes outwardly from their slots to engage the wall of the chamber. Wear of the vane result from this outward force and from the surface contact velocity. The vanes form successive compartments that collect air that is introduced into the compressor or expander. As the vane rotates, the working fluid is moved into a gradually constricted or expanding portion of the chamber where it is either compressed or expanded respectively. This working fluid is then delivered through an exhaust port. Conventional vane rotary devices exhibit at least a couple of significant problems. As each vane slides back and forth within its respective slot, a considerable amount of heat is generated. The friction resulting from such sliding causes the vanes to wear prematurely and leads to loss of performance. As a result, these types of devices require frequent maintenance. Moreover due to constant wear on the vanes, known rotary compressors and expanders are very likely to exhibit gaps at the contact region between the end tips of the vanes and the chamber wall. This can result in fluid leakage which may significantly impair the operation of the compressor or expander.